Improvement in side-wheel steamers



.FErERS, PHOTGYUTHOGRAPNER, WASHINGTON, D. a

UNITED STATES PATENT EEICE.

ALEXANDER MCDONALD SPRAGUE, OF MOBILE, ALABAMA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SIDE-WHEEL STEAMERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,507, dated April 5, 1859.

To all whom, it may concern:

Beit known that I, ALEXANDER McDoNALD SPRAGUE, of Mobile, in the county of Mobile and Siate ot' Alabama, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction ot" Side-Wheel Steamers; and I do hereby de claro that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to' the annexed drawings, forming part of this specification, in the several figures of which similar characters of reference denote the same parts.

Figure l is a plan View of the main deck of a steamer. Fig.y 2 is a broadside view of the hull, zito., of a steamer, showing position of water-wheel beams. Fig. 3 is a section on line x a, Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a cross-section on line y y, Fig. l.

In all descriptions of side-wheel Steamers a platform termed the guards projects from beyond the line of the hull both forward and abaft of the wheels, and in many descriptions of steamers these guards extend from the bow to the stern in one unbroken line at the outer edge. These guards are supported either by the deck-timbers or by timbers placed at the same level, which pass through the side of the hull and extend beyond the distance required to give the guards the proper width at different points. Those beams next adjacent to the wheel on either side are made of large size, and support the ends ot' the outer pillow-block beam for the support of the wheelshaft, and the pillow-block beams thus form a continuation of the guards around the wheel-house, connecting the forward and after guards with each other.

From the arrangement of the guards it will be readily perceived that in low steamers, in which the guards are only a short distance above the water, the wheels when in motion raise the water and throw it with great force (increasing with the velocity of the wheel) against the after-guard, that portion of the guard immediately adjacent to and within the influence of the water thrown off by the wheel. Hence the Velocity of the boat is retarded and a heavy percentage of the power t the engine is expended in keeping the boat ack.

The object of my improvement in steamboats is to remove this retardinginfluence on the velocity of the boat.

My invention for eecting this object consists in dividing the after-guard and elevating a section of the same next adjacent to the Wheel, so that the guard will be without the inuence of the water raised and the back current produced by the motion of the wheel.

The manner in which my improvement is constructed will be readily understood by rueference to the accompanying drawings, in which the construction of a boat With my improvement applied thereto is represent-ed.

I-I represents the hull of the boat; D, the deck; NV W, the Wheels; A, the forward guard, extending from the wheel to the bow; A A, the after-guard, extending from the stern to the wheel, the part A being raised a sufficient height to be without the influence of the water raised and the current produced by the motion of the wheel, thus leaving a clear water-space abaft the wheel for the escape of the current produced by the motion of the wheel without striking the guardbeams, (Z9, the guard-beams, which are a prolongation of the deck-beams 15,) the beams of the elevated portion of the after-guard, which pass through the boat above the deck-timbers and hull and give support to after end of pillow-block beam B. The forward end of 4this beam B rests upon blocks supported by the forward-guard timbers. ,Thus a iirm support is given to the outer end of the main shaft S of the wheel.

As it will thus be seen that in breaking and elevating that part of the rear guard adjacent to the wheel above the deck the retarding influence heretofore experienced in the use of the low and continuous guards is entirely overcome, as a clear water-way is left abaft of the wheel for the free passage of the current produced by the wheel when in motion and the guard-timbers raised beyond its iniiuence.

Having thus described my improvement in the construction of steamboats, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Raising the after-guards next adjacent to the Wheel above' the deok and hull of the l signed my name before two subscribing Witboat and also above the forward guard, submesses.

stantally as described, so as to leave a clear water-way beneath the after-guard and im- ALEX' MCDONALD SPRAGUE' mediately a-baft of the Wheel, for the purpose Vtnesses: Y as set forth. JAS. D. CLARY,

In testimony whereof I have hereunto JOHN S. HOLLING'SHEAD. 

